Dear Lifehacker, I’ve been accomplishing a lot of eBay and Amazon affairs lately, and I’m annoyed of accident so abundant of the money I accomplish on items by advantageous to accept them shipped! What are the cheapest agency to address my actuality area it needs to go?

Dear Spendthrift Shipper, It’s appealing rough—you can allegation bodies for aircraft back they win or buy article from you via eBay, Amazon, or Etsy (and you should), but if you under-bill them for it or absence your estimates, the blow is advancing out of your abridged or the money you fabricated on the item. It , but there are some agency to get the things you charge to move beyond boondocks or beyond the apple after spending a affluence to get them there. Here’s how.

Before you do anything, booty banal of what you accept to ship. If you can, counterbalance and admeasurement the item, and the box you plan to address it in. If you don’t accept packing materials, apperceive you’ll get answerable for them back you booty it to be shipped, so agency that into the aircraft fee your client pays back they win your bargain or buy from your store. Do what you can afore you alike advertise the annual so you don’t wind up advantageous a allocation of the aircraft amount yourself.

The speediest and feature-packed aircraft options are never the cheapest. If you charge tracking numbers, cancellation confirmation, insurance, and added services, the amount you’ll pay to address any annual will artlessly increase. As a rule, your best bet is to accept the slowest aircraft options, and bethink that added appearance and casework will access up the amount appealing bound (and they’re usually on a per-item basis).

However, if it’s basal aircraft prices you need, actuality are your best options:

When it comes to accustomed aircraft aural the United States, it’s difficult to exhausted the US Postal Annual on amount and affluence of use. Regardless of your opinions, the USPS has added locations in added places than best clandestine aircraft companies, and added cost-effective options for bodies who don’t accept accounts or approved aircraft needs.

12.12 | usps delivery confirmation label

If you abhorrence continuing in band at the Column Office, acquisition a area with a self-serve kiosk a you. You’ll be in and out in no time. Airing up, counterbalance your annual (if it’s necessary), book a label, stick it to your item, put it in the slot, and airing away.

We accept some added tips for ambidextrous with the Column Office, but alone I can’t say abundant acceptable things about the automatic postal kiosks—once you alpha application them, you absolutely won’t appetite to use annihilation else. Actuality are some of your best cost-effective USPS aircraft options:

The US Postal Annual offers a lot of bargain commitment annual and circadian commitment to your home, but if …

The USPS isn’t consistently the fastest way to get your bales to their destination, but they’re the best consistently affordable and attainable for the boilerplate person, abnormally if you’re alone aircraft items every already in a while. Alike if you’re active a baby business out of your house, like an Amazon abundance or an Etsy shop, or if you aloof annual a agglomeration of your actuality on eBay to apple-pie out the garage, aircraft items USPS is your best advantage to get them out of your abode and to their destination after spending a ton of money aloof to address them. Plus, because you can do so abundant of the packing and aircraft at home, all you accept to do is delay for your mail carrier to appearance up and accord them your bales to booty with them.

If you accept common aircraft needs, run a baby business, charge to address internationally, address frequently to APO/FPO/DPO locations or US Territories, or aloof charge to address added than the USPS can accumulate up with, you may appetite to accede UPS or FedEx.

They both accept bargain aircraft options, and both let you actualize an account, book your own labels, adjustment supplies, and again agenda a pickup. Actuality are some of your best budget-friendly choices:

If you’re aircraft internationally, UPS has a alternative of one to three day aircraft options, and FedEx has options from bristles canicule to overnight. They’re pricey, but they’re universally faster, and depending on area your annual is headed, they’re apparently added reliable. If you’re aircraft from the US to Canada, USPS isn’t a bad option, but if you’re aircraft from the US to Turkey, you may appetite to let a aggregation like UPS or FedEx—both of which accept their own massive all-embracing logistical networks—make abiding it gets beyond all of the appropriate borders and through all of the all-important cities to its destination intact.

If money is beneath of a application than speed, your options go up from here. For essentially added money but abundant quicker delivery, accede FedEx Express Saver, a three-day advantage commensurable to USPS Priority that’s cheaper than the USPS for added items, and for organizations aircraft added items at once. Express Saver additionally offers some nice allowances like Saturday auto that you don’t get elsewhere. UPS 3-Day Select is the agnate for UPS, and comes with alternative appearance like COD and assorted commitment attempts that you may not get from added carriers.

Regardless of the aircraft adjustment you pick, it’s important to accomplish abiding your items are arranged anxiously so they’ll survive the trip. All three above carriers let you adjustment aircraft food from them directly, including boxes and characterization sleeves that they affiance will accomplish abiding your bales are appropriately handled. They’re great, but they’re about consistently added big-ticket back you buy them absolute than if you buy them in aggregate at your bounded appointment accumulation store. Stop there instead (or adjustment online) and you can aces up sleeves and boxes at a atom of the amount you’d absorb at a UPS Store, FedEx/Kinkos, or at the Column Office.

Similarly, accomplish abiding to save all of the packing actual you get from added shipments. Packing peanuts, balloon wrap, air pillows—it goes after saying, but accepting them lying about to actuality into bales back you address them out agency you don’t accept to buy them yourself. Boxes themselves are addition matter—you may appetite to buy boxes unless the ones you accumulate and breach bottomward are in acceptable action and are about unlabeled. Some of the aircraft methods we mentioned crave you to agenda on the amalgamation that it’s actuality alien a assertive way, but it’s not until you get to the added big-ticket brief and two-day aircraft methods that appropriate boxes or envelopes are required. You can consistently address “Priority” on the ancillary of your Priority mail package, or grab those Priority Mail stickers that are about consistently in the antechamber of the column appointment and put one on anniversary ancillary of your package.

It doesn’t amount whether you address USPS, FedEx, UPS, or some added carrier—your amalgamation will be one of bags affective through their systems, and there’s consistently the abeyant there’s some annoyed agent who won’t amusement it with the admiring affliction that you would if you were in their place. That’s why it’s important to backpack carefully, and use the appropriate materials. That way alike if the alfresco gets roughed up, the burden central is still in acceptable shape.

Over at The Simple Dollar, Trent offers his adventures aircraft bales on the cheap, and they’re agnate to mine: There are bodies who’ll affirm off of one annual and affirm by addition for one acumen or another, and the added comments you apprehend and testimonials you hear, the murkier the amnion will get. The basal band is that I, for one, accept apparent bales manhandled by all three above carriers. I’ve additionally gotten accomplished annual and accelerated commitment from all three carriers. Aces the best acceptable and amount able one for you based on your aircraft needs and your budget, not hearsay.

Sincerely, Lifehacker

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